Flames of the Past
by Phantom Ice
Summary: My friends think they know all my secrets. They would never guess, couldn't imagine, that I have one they don't. One that dictates my every action, one that would, in my mind, justify anything I did no matter how awful. I don't really care about being a hero or saving lives. I only care about her, and I would sooner watch the world burn than let a single scratch mar her milky skin.


_**AN**_: _Okay, I have to warn you this seems a bit overly mushy and dramatic in the beginning, just stick it out, please? I guarantee it will be worth it! I spent way more time than I actually have to spend writing this, when I should have been doing Hw or maybe writing 'Who I Really Am', but this idea, though one I've had for a while, just recently put itself into words, and I just couldn't stop with it! I think this is my new favorite one-shot (sorry 'Colors'), so now for an collaboration between muses 2, 4, and 7. Those three don't usually get along, 2 and 4 are always butting heads, and 7 just thinks they're both short sighted and immature, but I think this proves that together the three of them can do great things! (FYI: 2 is Romance, 4 you should be well acquainted with if you read any of my other stories, she is Angst, Tragedy, and Horror, and 7 is Reflectiveness)_

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Confession time. I have a secret. Okay, so I know what you're thinking, of course I have a secret, for crying out loud I'm a half ghost! Well, would you believe me if I told you I had another secret? One that I didn't reveal to the world after I saved it, one so private that I've told no one, and to date no one has figured it out, not Tucker, not Jazz, and especially not Sam.

I wrap my arm tighter around the petite girl sleeping with me, not like _that_ mind you (pervs). Real honest to God sleeping. We're out enjoying some of my rare downtime between fighting ghosts and being a world famous superhero, and sometimes the best thing a guy could ask for after going through those types of things was some peace and quite. Of course, Sam delivered, she brought us to the park, curled up with me under a tree, and promptly fell asleep after kissing me goodnight. I love her. I love her so much it physically hurts. She's so beautiful, kind, intelligent, caring, cute, and perfect. Oh so so perfect. I wish I could fawn over her all day and night, I would do anything she asks for in a heartbeat, I can give her anything she wants in the two universes I am a part of... but I can't. I've learned the hard and painful way that Sam is not a girl you can worship. It won't win her over, she will reject you and crush your heart like it's nothing more than the ground meat she does so hate. It's cruel, but that's Sam, and I'd never ask her to change, why would you change perfection?

I run my gloved hands through her soft dark hair. I know Sam loves Phantom over Fenton- why else would she abandon Fenton during the Disastroid incident when he was hurt and confused and needed her the most?- so I try to stay in my ghost form when I'm around her no matter how exhausted I am. It's a small price to see her smile. In her sleep her delicate hands come up to wrap themselves around my neck, and I moan in bliss.

God, Sam. I don't know what I'd ever do if she found out this secret. I know Sam, probably better than she knows herself. She would be repulsed, horrified, distraught, she'd probably think all this, everything we've gone through since it happened, was a lie. That's not true, though, I swear! It is real, every bit of it! What happened doesn't change anything, she loves me, and I love her, and that's all that matters! She wouldn't see it that way, though, I know it. She would feel betrayed, cheated, and most of all, hurt. I could never stand by and let Sam be hurt, especially because of me, and so I will never tell her the truth about 'us'.

I hold the amazing girl close as I breath in her wispy flowery aroma, true perfection, no one else holds a candle... but where was I? Oh, right, the secret.

To tell the truth, I don't remember much about my life before, and I don't mean the incident is foggy, I mean the fourteen years of my life before that moment, excluding the accident that turned me half ghost in the first place, as I assure you that is something impossible not to remember in excruciating detail, were nothing but imprints on my psych. Then she appeared in my world, and it all comes crashing back.

One moment I was hurt while fighting, worrying about the well being of all the bystanders and thinking of nothing more then protecting them all, and the next moment it was gone. I was gone. It was surprisingly painless for what it was, I felt all my worries, doubts, memories, and responsibilities draining from my mind, billowing away in a powerful wind. For a second I felt weightless,there was nothing holding me down anymore,nothing keeping me here, all those times I thought I was free I never knew what true freedom was, this was freedom, no weight on my shoulders and nothing dragging me down.

Then the anvil hit me. I felt my memories and emotions funnel back in, everything I had lost, except they were very specific thoughts, memories, and emotions. My body was burning and freezing all at the same time, though not unpleasantly, as I was hyper aware of every forgotten touch, stroke, glance, and smile, and suddenly I was drowning.

It was extremely unexpected, I'm- metaphorically- floating without a care in the world, and then I'm plummeting in a hopeless downwards spiral, my stomach tingling, before slamming back to Earth. I tried to reach up and grasp the clouds I had been so blissful in, but I couldn't. Honestly, once the memories settled, I didn't want to. I was covered in restricting chains somehow even heavier than ever before, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I would take a hundred times more weight on those chains if it meant being with _her_.

Immediately I turned to her, needing to see if she was as beautiful as my memories portrayed... She was better. There she was, distraught violet eyes staring at me in confusion, sparkling in the bright light of the midday sun. Windswept short black hair whipping around her head like a dark halo. The halo of an angel. An angel of darkness, my angel of darkness. For that's what she was to me, an angel come to rescue me from the darkness of life by chaining me to her, how had I never realized this before?

Pure perfection right in front of me my entire life, and I never saw it!

"Uh, Danny," I paused at the sound of her melodious voice, not even slightly tainted by the panic and fear evident in it, it was to beautiful to be undermined by such futile things. I completely blanked out for the rest of her sentence before I realized she was talking to me! Of course I had plenty of memories of this happening in the past, but I still found myself amazed that this angel would speak to someone like me. She asked me a question, and despite the butterflies fluttering inside of me, I managed out an answer.

"Wow, I just never realized, you're really pretty when you're about to fall off a building,"

I sigh as remember how she looked. It's true she's beautiful while in mortal peril, but as I look down at her sleeping figure now that I'm finally hers... Well, this is better. However, in that moment seemingly so long ago, it was true, she was never, even in my memories, so beautiful to me as in those precious seconds, it wasn't Ember or her music, it was my own true love finally made clear to me.

I was overcome with the desire to touch that milky pale porcelain skin. To take her in my arms and never let go. She seemed to panic as I crawled toward her, but she was safe with me around. It would all be okay as long as we were together. I stood up and took one step and then another, she objected, but I couldn't stop. I needed to be closer to her. I even told her as much, but she didn't understand, that was alright, Sam had her own way of thinking.

I closed my eyes as I stepped closer, arms reaching out to hold her and never let go...

Then she fell. I was broken out of my ditzy love stroke and realized my angel was falling! I was just about ready to jump off the roof and catch her, when a man on a helicopter beat me to it. I didn't like the way he was touching or looking at her, but before I could make that _painfully _clear to him, the ground under my feet shifted and I was falling with the large cardboard cut out. Looking back, I suppose I could have gone ghost, but without Sam in any danger I didn't really feel, or remember, the need to.

Once on the ground, I was very suddenly, tragically before I could find Sam, grabbed by two pairs of strong arms that then threw me into the back of an armored truck. I was ready to escape and find my dark princess, but one of the girls in the truck with me had black hair, and suddenly I was thrown into memories and fantasy's all revolving around Sam and her silky black locks. I was running my hands through them, I was snuggling my head in them, I was clutching them and pulling lightly as she erupted in pleasured shivers while moaning my name...

The next thing I was aware of was of being thrown onto the ground next to my sister on the foyer of our home.

"What is the matter with you kids?," my Dad's gruff voice demanded.

"You need to be preparing for the northwestern nine testing tomorrow!" My mom screeched. Well, maybe it wasn't a screech, but in comparison to my brilliant Sam, every voice sounded like rusted armor.

I was incredulous, they expected me to focus on school work when Sam existed in my life?! Were they insane?

"How can I study? All I can think about is Sam," I tried to make them see reason. However, all I got in response was my sisters equally incredulous inquiry on why I wasn't thinking about the hypnotizing pop star ghost, as if she could hold a candle to the goddess that was Sam. Again I began daydreaming about my dark angel, this time running my hands along her body as she did the same to me, holding her flush against me, gazing deep into her beautiful and stunning eyes. I was almost brought to my knees with memories of our fake-out make-out. Her soft lips and gentle touch...

This time when I emerged from my musings I found myself standing in the doorway of my room. Looking around the space I was disappointed with the overwhelming lack of Sam. I mean, I had a few pictures of her on the dresser, but they were all of two or three of us rather than just her, and she couldn't be found anywhere else in the room... or could she?

There was a benefit to only remembering certain aspects of my life before this violent pulsing need for Sam. All those memories involving her were multiplied tenfold to the point I could remember every bit as clear as if it had been measly minutes ago. I dove into my closet as I remembered exactly which pants and pockets I had stuffed every note we had in passed in class that I hadn't thrown away (how could I be so stupid as to throw away such precious things that my angel had touched?). After I reverently placed them on my bed I went to my dresser and picked out the pictures that only had me and Sam in them, including one I had taken recently of her at the dance where she turned into a dragon, vividly reminiscing the circumstances of each one, smiling as I remembered us pulling each other close and smiling at cameras. I even found a lock of her hair and a stick of her wonderful plum lipstick in my bathroom, as well as a piece of her chewed gum she had rolled up in paper and thrown at me once when she was annoyed...

Still, even after I took those out of the frames and placed them with the notes, I felt like something was missing, it was then I remembered when Sam had come over three weeks, two days, nine hours, and twenty three minutes ago. She had been rubbing her wrist because she had just gotten a new studded bracelet and it was chaffing her, so she took then it and put it... I practically flew over to my nightstand as I threw open the drawer and pulled out a loop of spiked black leather, holding it tightly against my heart as I soaked in memories of it's owner. I arranged it on the bed with the rest of the stuff, but still I knew there was more.

"Come on, think, Fenton!" I chastised myself as I struggled to recall anything else I might have of Sam. "Got it!" I shouted in excitement as I dropped to the ground and intangibly stuck my hand behind the frame of my bed, smiling widely as I pulled out two old dusty photographs. One was a surprise picture I had taken of my dark angel as she was turning to talk to me, Tucker was just visible in the corner, but it would do. The other was a picture of the peak of Sam's rebellious nature. She wore a plaid v-neck tang top along with a pendant choker and three earrings in the visible right ear. However, what was most shocking was her hair, which she had half shaved off leaving the other half to poof over on the other side. She had destroyed all other evidence of that stage in her life besides this picture, which I was the blessed owner of.

I fondly remembered when Sam, embarrassed, had snatched both the pictures I was now holding from a laughing me and thrown them behind the bed. It was before I had my ghost powers, so obviously I had no way of reaching them and they were soon forgotten, so there they had stayed for nearly two years. Now they were once again with me. I smiled as I carefully arranged these last two items on my bed with the rest, and I swore I could feel the very essence of Sam culminating around them. I climbed onto the center of the bed, careful not to disturb anything, and sat there with my eyes closed in a meditative position as I tried to feel her in the air.

"Sam," I whispered breezily into the air as I was filled with images and memories of her perfection. "Sam," it came again, and soon it was a mantra of her name as I smiled in happiness.

I was jarred out of my peacefulness with a rough tap at my window, however all was instantly forgiven as I saw who it was.

"Sam! You snuck out to see me!" I was stunned, why would such absolute perfection risk anything just to come see someone like me? It must be a sign! She must really and truly against all odds love me back! That means we really are a couple! "Oh, this is just like Romeo and Juliet, except I'm the one in the balcony... and I can understand everything we're saying," I exclaimed in joy.

"Danny, open up!" Her sweet melodious voice traveled through the pane of glass, and without even a thought I was there opening it for her.

"You want me to open up?" I asked her, "okay, ummm", I thought about what I could share with her, I had already made my feelings as clear as I could, and I wanted to save the marriage proposal for later, but Sam had grown up with me, what could I say that she didn't already know? I began to panic, the beautiful gothic creature gracing my presence needed an answer! _Well_, I thought, _maybe I can just concentrate in when we were young, she probably won't remember every little detail about me from back then_. So I began, "One time, when I was five, I really wanted a puppy," I clasped my hands together, "but my parents-," this time I wagged my finger at the air. I was actually surprised at how sad I still was about the puppy, but what did it matter now that I had Sam?

"Will you knock it off?!" She reprimanded, still sure that my feelings were insincere. "We have to stop Ember's concert before she takes over the world!" I loved the huge animated gestures she seemed to make with her entire body as she paced my room. Only to stop when she reached the bed. "Okay, even the part of me that's kind of liking the attention is really freaked out by this," she said to no one in particular. I didn't understand her feeling on the matter, but as her boyfriend it was my job to comfort her.

"It doesn't matter, just so long as we have each other," I used the same thought as I had to make me forget about the puppy as I grasped onto her soft frail hands. With an annoyed sigh her voice once again rang out

"Snap out of it! You don't really feel that way about me, and I don't feel that way about you!" For a moment I lost me resolve, but I quickly decided she couldn't be serious and pointed out why.

"So why are you still holding my hands?" I asked with a smirk.

With a growl of frustration, which was incredibly hot by the way, she threw down my hands and stomped away. As she did so I noticed the green glint near her ears.

"And why are you still wearing those Fenton phones I gave you?" I added, incredibly proud that she liked my gift so much. She turned with barely contained aggression, hot.

"Danny," she sighed in exasperation, "their not even real earrings," She sighed again, "they're just some stupid communicators that..." She trailed off as the most magnificent gleam came into her eyes, "filter out ghost noise!" I didn't understand, did this mean she really didn't like my gift, and if she didn't like my gift, did that mean she didn't want to be my girlfriend?!

"Does this mean were breaking up!?" I asked, completely crushed and in an absolute panic. We couldn't break up, not now when we had just discovered our love for one another! However, Sam ignored my question in favor of continuing her train of thought.

"Don't you get it, Danny?" She asked in wonderful beautiful excitement. "That's why I haven't been effected by Ember's music! I was wearing the Fenton phones the whole time!" Wait, so this meant she did like my gift?

"So... We're not breaking up?" I asked hopefully. Again she growled, and again it sent pleasured chills through my system.

"How can we be breaking up! We were never together!" I took that as a no, and so with a smile I concentrated on how hot she was when she shouted as she said something about deprogramming and Tucker...

I thought I would explode of happiness when she grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room, dragging me to school. I didn't know why she didn't just ask me to fly us there, but I wasn't about to question my dark angel's grip on me. We made it to the classroom where we had left our friend, and I simply watched as Sam made gentle apologies as she unraveled him. I loved the way her voice sounded, gentle and subdued, as well as the soft caring look on her face and in her eyes.

"You're beautiful when you're racked with guilt," I pointed out in case she wasn't aware.

"Not now, Danny" even just the annoyance in her tone without the anger or growling was a huge turn on.

"Well it's about time!" Another not nearly as wonderful voice cut in, "I always knew you two would end up together!" He exclaimed, and while his words made me beyond exited, I did not approve of his actions as he crushed Sam and I into a deep hug. How dare he touch Sam! My Sam, my dark angel! Ectoplasm pooled beneath the surface if my skin as I saw her body pushed against his, and I was just about ready to throw an ectoblast when I was placated by Sam pushing away from his grip.

"We're not together! Ember put him under some kind of spell!" She sighed in frustration. I decided to ignore her words, obviously she was just trying to escape his advances.

"So you don't want to end up together?" He asked, I didn't like it, was he trying to come between us?

"I don't know, maybe? But not like this!" I didn't get it, like what? "Tucker, please, we have to break the spell," she begged. I didn't like that either, Sam didn't need to beg anyone for anything. I would do or get anything she wanted in a heartbeat. Why did she even want to break this spell anyway? It had no effects besides making me realize my devotion to Sam, my love. I suppose though, that that should have been a hint of things to come.

The boy, who I decided to watch very closely from now on considering he and my Sam were very close friends, suggested something about leaving me here for twelve hours, as if I would ever spend that much time away from Sam, but my love refused as I knew she would. She knew we could never stay away from each other for that long.

Then the angel of darkness and I were pushed out of the room by the other boy. His hand rested squarely on her back. I didn't like it, and I made sure not to take my eyes off of him in case he tried anything funny, or looked at her like he was checking her out. I didn't think he was, but you could never be to careful.

I only broke my gaze when we made it to the auditorium where the ghost would be performing. Per Sam's unspoken request I flew us intangibly through the door, ecstatic to be of service in her plan.

"Go kill thee power, we'll stand watch," she ordered. I loved it when she took control like this. Diligently she glared around the studio room, and I made sure to keep my eyes on the only thing in here worth protecting. For a moment Sam gazed back at me and lost concentration,

"Um, can you watch something besides me?" She asked adorably. I don't want to, but Sam asked, so I did it. Of course I didn't want to go without her perfection for even a moment through, so I pulled out my new emergency picture of Sam and gazed lovingly at it instead, still watching the original from the corner of my eye.

I was so focused on protecting Sam that I didn't realize we were under attack until we were being grabbed and pulled to the side.

The ghost said something, I imagine along the same monologue all other ghosts seemed to love so dearly, and then left with a flourish. I was glad she was gone, it meant I could concentrate more on Sam. I didn't at all like the way _Dash _was holding her, not only did it look uncomfortable for my darling Sam, but he also had her _way_ to close to him for my comfort. The only reason I wasn't as angry and ready to attack as I was with our mutual friend earlier was the knowledge that Sam hated Dash. While it was a possibility she could have some sort of relationship with the dark skinned boy, whose been her friend for just as long as I have, there was near no chance she would ever put up with even the smallest advance from my bully, I was sure that she cared about me to much for that.

"Danny! stop her, now!" I scoffed, as if I could ever leave Sam alone! Especially while she was in the arms of another man, enemy or not.

"I won't leave you, Sam," I made my opinion on the matter very clear. Sam took precedence over the rest of the world any day, that much should have been obvious.

"Forget about me!" I was aghast, she knew I would do anything she asked, but this... That was ridiculous. How could she even think that I could ever...

"I can't! I won't!" I argued, immediately wanting to apologies for contradicting her.

"I hate to do this to you, Danny, but if I can't break Ember's spell, I'm gonna' have to break your heart," needless to say I didn't like the sound of that one bit, but before I could even react Sam had turned around and, and...

I clench my jaw and my fists, pulling Sam over onto my lap as she sleeps in order to keep her even closer. As I look down I gently brush my lips against hers as if to dispel any lingering jock left over on them. I know why she had done what she did back then, but it still hurt beyond reason. I loved her so much, I was willing to give her the world, my life, anything! Yet she still chose to betray me like that! I couldn't even... I lean off the tree and tighten my grip on Sam. She's mine now, all mine.

Back in the past, I remember my complete shock.

"Sam... how could you? How..." I was forced to watch her lips against his, to afraid and suddenly unsure of myself and 'us' to do anything else. As it happened I felt such strong violent feelings that I had never felt or even had a name for, especially to such a degree. Some of the most recognizable ones were hate, betrayal, hurt, and an overwhelming desire to hurt someone else, namely the large jock. I broke out of my shock,

"Hey! Stay away from her!" I shouted, ready to take action against he who dared to lay a finger on an angel. However, before I got the chance they had broken away and both football players had run away in a panic, so I was forced to focus back on my hurt. My awful agonizing scream worthy hurt.

"Danny, I'm so sorry!" She immediately started confronting my agony, how considerate.

"You, you and Dash?" My angel, my beautiful dark angel, I was so sure that she cared about me at least enough to stay away from someone who made a sport of hurting me. Apparently I was wrong, but... that was... alright. I struggled greatly with these thoughts, but I needed them, I needed to make this okay. Sam... Sam kissed Dash, but... It's okay, because... because Sam is an individual, and she is... free... to... to _kiss _and be in _l-love_ with anyone she so pleases. I just had to understand, understand _why?. _Why did she chose _Dash_, the brainless jock, over _me, _her best friend? I just loved her so much, so much it hurt, and I needed to understand why she did it, why she would hurt me."but we were..." Hope lit up my face as I recalled out happy status as a couple.

Sam didn't feel the same about those memories. She stared at me with such saddened eyes, so gentle and soft. It was infuriating, she was looking at me like I was a little child to small or naive to really comprehend true love. I think that was the one and only time Sam was wrong. Well, not wrong _per say,_ she could never be wrong, the angel, she just didn't... understand. She was making things to complicated, a common aspect of Sam's wonderful personality. Love didn't have to be complicated or oppressive, rather it was simple and pure, and what could be more simple than the fact I love Sam and I know she is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. There's nothing wrong with that... but Sam wasn't going to see it that way, was she?

That was when the glass shattered around the facade I had built myself, at least I was able to comfort myself with the fact that Sam was, in fact, right to an extent. I was to naive, but not about love, about Sam. I love how independent and fierce she is, but that kept her from truly being able to find plain and simple love. She didn't have it with her parents, she didn't have it with her schoolmates, and, until now, she didn't have it with me. So I changed, just like she wanted me to.

"... But, we weren't, were we?" I finished with a heartbroken frown.

"No, Ember did that. It's just, this is so hard, because a part of me, part of me really liked this and..." She tried to explain, but suddenly I didn't want to hear it. These excuses just made the pain throb all the more, so instead I set my sights on the ghost that had caused this mess. What I really wanted to do was beat up Dash, but Sam would never approve of that, and she wanted me to fight this ghost, she broke my heart for it, so I settled for that instead.

"Danny, are you okay?" If I hadn't known any better, I would have told her it was a stupid question, but I decided to just settle for the truth.

"No. I feel like my heart's been ripped out, but I know who I can take it out on!" Never before and no time since has my fighting been fueled by such anger. Not in Wisconsin, not against Pariah Dark or even my own terrifying Sam-free alternate future. Were the same event to happen now, Ember wouldn't stand an inkling of a chance, she would be destroyed and vaporized before she could do so much as scream or beg for mercy, but as it was I was much weaker back then, and so she was allowed to continue on her existence.

Sighing I lean back against the rough bark of the tree as I remember that day. The day that defined my life, because, like I said, I have a secret.

Sam never broke the spell.

She broke my heart, she shattered my self worth, and she destroyed my naivety, but she didn't break the spell. She simply disillusioned me. That was the moment I realized Sam was never going to come around, she wasn't like other girls, which I love about her, but it was working against me in this case. She wouldn't ever go for me like this, dotting and worshiping the ground she walked on, even if she deserved it. She needed me to be strong and grounded, tough and smart, but most of all she needed me to go at her pace. I needed to wait for the right moment to make my move.

So I pretended. I pretended to fight Ember so that I could save everybody (which wasn't that hard, my heart really was throbbing in pain, and it was nice to have an outlet) when I really just wanted to please her, I pretended the spell was broken and my world no longer centered around her, but that's all it ever was, pretending. As if such a small betrayal could ever compete with our love. Please, Sam could have _slept_ (and this time I do mean in that way) with Dash and, although it would have destroyed me, the pain would have been worth it. looking down at her resting figure, I know that even now she could cheat on me, she could sleep with Dash, Kwan, even Tucker, all at the same time even, and I would take her back in a heartbeat, though I can't speak for what might happen to the boys. Sam is my life, my reason for existing, and while betrayal would hurt (understatement of the century), it would be nothing compared to losing her.

However, back then I knew that losing her was exactly what would happen if I didn't change tactics, and so I changed for her. I pretended as best I could to no longer have feelings for her. Thus when I came back from fighting Ember and she hugged me, I didn't run my hands along her flawless arms, or press myself against her petite form like I so desperately wanted to, but rather I forced myself to remain stoic even as the blood rushed through my veins, begging me to get closer.

For months I tried my hardest to ignore her, and when that proved impossible, at least hide the fact that I was hyper aware of her every movement. I checked out other girls, I even went on dates. However, at the same time I made sure to act just as she believed the town hero should, I saved people and did the right thing by her standards no matter how much it hurt me, my grades, and not to mention my dream of becoming an astronaut... It doesn't matter though, I would give up a million dreams to make Sam happy.

Despite my perceived ignorance and cluelessness, I always knew from that day forward that I loved Sam and only Sam. I noticed her every movement when I dated Paulina (or rather, Kitty) and Valerie. It took everything I had not to run back to my angel of darkness and wash away her pain, begging her for forgiveness, but that would not win Sam over, and so I didn't. The only times, I'm ashamed to say, I lost sight of my true goal where under Freakshow's mind control, when my focus was split between her and that ball of swirling crystal, when I faced my future self and was racked with barely suppressed grief and guilt over her death to the point I could sometimes barely distinguish who's Sam was dead and whose was alive, and worst of all when she wished that we had never meet, and I forgot she existed entirely.

As time passed I found it harder and harder to hide my feelings. I couldn't eat or sleep, I couldn't even think straight when Sam was around me, and I would practically recede into depression whenever she wasn't. She was my drug, I needed her like I needed the air I breathed. Still, I suppressed myself. No matter how much I wanted to stare into her eyes for hours, or run my hands along her small body, I didn't. I suppressed the raging desire to push her against walls and just kiss her, along with other not so PG things whenever she so much as brushed against me. I couldn't control my body completely, but I made sure she never noticed.

At first I decided to treat her worse, I adhered to that prevalent male sexism I knew she hated, told her girls couldn't play video games and drooled over other girls (which I was only ever even able to do by imagining that they were Sam). However, I quickly realized that that tactic was just about as effective as dotting on her. Sam would not stand for it. Next I tried ignoring her, I focused on my family and the town, things I knew Sam wouldn't criticize, but might feel left out of. That tactic, though effective, was one I couldn't stand. I couldn't be away from Sam like that, it hurt to much. That's when I tried other girls as the opportunity presented themselves, knowing Sam would keep a close eye on me and my 'girlfriend'. I couldn't stand to see Sam in so much hurt because of me, and although I employed that tactic a few times afterward when I felt it necessary, I tried to keep time near anyone that wasn't my Angel of Darkness to a minimum. I mixed and matched all these tactics throughout time, sometimes ignorance, sometimes family, sometimes the well being of the town over ever her. I even tried separating myself in two once in order to spend time with her while not! It wasn't easy.

I think the first real challenge was the release of Pariah Dark. I thought maybe it was time. It was possible that I would not return, that made it appropriate to reveal my dying love for her, right? Right!? I wasn't sure, not yet, what if it was to soon for her? Only one way to find out. I set her up to make the first move. She wasn't ready.

More waiting, more staling, more pain.

Then came _Vlad_. He infected Sam, my Sam with a deadly illness!? I don't think so! Destroying him in his weakened state would have been so easy. I could practically feel his mutated blood so much like my own running between my fingers... but what would Sam, ever the humanitarian, think of me if I killed him right here in front of her, on the cold hard pavement of a fast food parking lot of all places? Not very highly, I'd imagine. So I restrained myself... barely.

It was especially difficult when I thought she might be moving on. Gregor came into the picture, and I would spend nights imagining different ways to make him leave Sam alone, when they kissed it was like Dash all over again, but yet again it was worth it. The hardest part was when I found out _Elliot_ was using Sam. That vile subhuman monster using my Sam!? Even thinking about it now I feel my ectoplasm boiling. If it were up to me I would have incinerated him, serves him right, and it was only thoughts of how much my dark angel hated violence that kept him alive. However, that's not to say I didn't insure _he_ would never bother her again. I still check in on him from time to time... to this day he has horrible nightmares that keep him awake and screaming in the night. I hold no sympathy for him, it serves him right for daring to touch the angel in my arms. I sometimes have trouble touching my angel myself because of the small thing I'm keeping from her, and the fact that he had no qualms about it while lying about his very being, it appalls and disgusts me to no end.

Freakshow's return was an inconvenience at best. I still had Sam, so why bend over backwards to the words of a mad man? I didn't understand it at all. Sam didn't even get along with her family! Still it seemed important to her, so I went along with it, it was the least I could do for such perfection in its rawest form. That is, until the roller coaster. At every new twist and turn I was sure Sam was doomed, that I wouldn't make it... But I did. Thanking every higher power there might be, I flew out of that one with a smile, one step closer to Sam.

It was also difficult to keep myself in check when Sam was overshadowed by Undergrowth. At first, when Tucker and I were restrained by the large plant ghost, I tried my hardest not to ask about Sam's whereabouts, pretending she wasn't completely on the forefront of my mind over everything else that was happening to Amity, but I eventually couldn't contain myself, and I asked. I'll never forget when I first saw her. Yes, I was angry at the plant ghost, but that was eclipsed by my desperate _need _for Sam. God, her in that dress, it was nothing more than loosely hanging leaves for crying out loud! I could just have her right then... but still I waited more. Even when she asked me to join her, though I so wanted to accept if it meant being with Sam forever, I knew it was not what Sam would have really wanted, and so I defeated Undergrowth and continued to only slowly show my feelings for her. We were so close, I could feel it! When I gave her that ice crystal, which I poured my every latent emotion into, she leaned in and I thought for sure... but I guess it doesn't matter now. Now that I'm really truly hers. Not that it didn't bother me a lot at the time. Sure by that time I had rebuilt my friendship with Tucker, and realized that he may not want steal away my Sam (not that I didn't keep a very close eye on their interactions, just in case), but I thought I might just attack him right then when he drove up in that overgrown lawnmower and interrupted that blissful moment.

I think the last straw, though, was Nocturne and his dreams. I thought I was so close to having Sam, only to realize it was nothing but a dream, and then to see that she felt _exactly _the same way about me, it was torture, knowing that she still wasn't ready to admit it.

Although, I have to admit, our camping trip was a welcome reprieve. It seemed Sam was simply more at ease amongst the nature she did so love. She was more relaxed and laid back than ever, I had even contemplated making my move, but I'm ashamed to say I chickened out at the last moment. I still wasn't one hundred percent sure she could return my affections so utterly completely as I was willing to give her mine.

Then, finally, the Disastroid. I had to tell Sam how I felt, there was no way I could hold out anymore, but I was thwarted at every turn. I couldn't be the hero Sam wanted me to be, and she was slowly but surely pulling out emotionally. Almost a year of hard work all to be lost because of 'Master's Blaster's', it was infuriating. Then the GIW came and arrested my family, and it seemed Sam was in more danger than ever all because of me, not to mention there was no way she would be able to admit her feelings if things continued to go as they were. So I made a horrible miscalculation. I thought I would have more time and could offer more to Sam as a human, and so I got rid of my powers. I was right, but Sam didn't see it that way. For the second time I was crushed, and therefore disillusioned, by Sam Manson.

It wasn't me she loved, it was my powers, it was a horrible realization, but it had to be true. The second I was human I could feel her emotional withdrawal. I was loosing her and I didn't know how to stop it.

The asteroid was a miracle. It gave me the chance to win Sam back, and all I had to do was save the world. I spent hours upon hours trying to think of a plan, and it was Vlad's blotched attempt that finally gave me the idea. One intangible Earth, here we come. I risked my life without thought, because it was what Sam wanted, and fate must have been on my side, because against all odds it gave me my powers back. It gave me Sam back.

Once again her limitless purple eyes looked at me with affection, and I could stay sane. I also realized I couldn't wait any longer, I couldn't risk loosing her again, and when she made her move, I made mine. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. Her lips _finally _moving against mine with real emotion. I felt like a bunched up coil that had finally been let loose. A plan hatched all the way back when she had first kissed my bully had finally come to completion. We were together, and nothing would ever separate us. Those ghosts could kill me in the ghost zone, it didn't matter, I would come back for her, and I did. That day on the hill when I finally asked her to be with me, and she finally said yes... There are no words to describe that feeling.

"Sam" I whisper into this perfect girls hair. All that time, and we are finally together. I still have to hold back, but now I can have her in my arms, I can keep watch over her and stroke her nearly whenever I desire.

"Danny?" Sam blinks her eyes open and stretches in my lap. She gives me a glare when she sees the position I had maneuvered us into while she was asleep, but I just smile that smile I know she loves, and she just kisses my forehead before standing up. "Did you have a nice nap, oh so great savior of the world?" She asked me with a smirk.

"How could I possibly nap when I could be looking at you?" I ask her, and she rolls her eyes.

"Uh huh, right," even in sarcasm her voice is better than any music. She looks me over and raises an eyebrow, "were you Phantom this entire time?" She asks curiously. I nod, "why? Aren't you tired?" She questions.

"It makes me feel better," I answer simply. It's the truth, anything that makes Sam even the slightest bit happier makes me feel hundreds of times better. Sam gives me and odd look and then shrugs her shoulders in a strong fluid motion that does a wonderful job of framing and pushing out her chest.

I smile and float up to a standing position. As Sam turns to leave, I snatch her wrist and pull her body back into me. We look into each others eyes for a second, her's wide with surprise, and then I capture her lips in a passionate kiss. Her hands come up and run through my hair, I hold her body flush against mine and just allow that feeling of 'Sam' to rush over me.

When we break the kiss, Sam sighs and rests her head against my chest.

"God, Danny, I don't understand why we hid our feelings from each other for so long," she laughs. I know why I did, but I'm about to say that.

"Me neither, Sam, I don't know how I could have been so stupid," she giggles, and it is as if the heaven's bells are ringing just for me.

"Ya, we were," she sighs as she jumps back onto solid ground next to where I am slightly floating, and takes my hand as she begins to walk us out of the park. "But I assure you, if I would have known what I was missing, I would have taken it the first chance I got," she winks at me, and I smile widely at the praise.

We walk in silence for a while, then an idea seems to hit Sam (which leaves a rather wonderful spark in her eye) and she laughs softly.

"What?" I ask curiously, she just shakes her head. "Come on, Sam, tell me what it is, please, please, pretty please!" I give her my best puppy pout.

"Fine," she sighs in fake exasperation, "I was just thinking about you under Ember's spell. Do you remember it? I mean, you were under some sort of spell so..."

"No, I remember it perfectly, like it was only yesterday," the irony, as would be expected, flew right over her head.

"Really? Well then you'll remember acting like a lovesick puppy with hormones?" She asks with a smirk, the comment plainly meant to be playfully embarrassing. "At the time it was annoying, but now I just find it funny," she adds.

I blush (something I had learned to do on cue).

"Aww, come on, Sam, that wasn't my fault and you know it!" I argue, even if it is counter intuitive to any leeway I might make with her in the subject. My angel of darkness stops her walking and turns to face me, widening her eyes in a dreamy stare and wrapping her arms around herself in a mock hug.

"I just never realized, you're really pretty when you're about to fall off a building," she sighs out melodramatically, and I can't help but chuckle.

"Okay, okay, I get it, it was a bit much," I 'admit', even if I don't fully believe it. It isn't my fault she can't see that she is a goddess on Earth.

"A bit much?" She continues to walk with a snort. "Try a lot much. Where did you even get all that... memorabilia, you had of me on your bed, I'm pretty sure I remember their being chewed gum..." she trails off for a second and then shakes her head and regains her concentration. "You were completely obsessed! It was pretty hilarious,"

"What's not to be obsessed about?" I ask, and she laughs, playfully shoving me.

"Maybe I should have just gone a long with it, I could have saved us a lot of time," she winks again.

"Don't worry about it, my angel of darkness," I smile at her blush, "it doesn't matter, so long as we have each other,".

For a millisecond I worry as I see a flash of horrified recognition dart across Sam's face, but it is chased away by doubt and refusal to believe the thought, probably convincing herself it is nothing more than coincidence or a joke.

"I guess you're right, Danny. After all, that spell was broken a long time ago, and we were just fine finding our way to each other without it's twisted influence,".

And it is with that final comment on the subject my Angel and I walk out of the park, hand in hand and in pure, true, and real love.

Well, one of us is.

THE END

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_**A/N**: In honor of Friday the 13, something a bit creepy and disturbing, what do you think? (And yes, I know it isn't Friday the thirteenth anymore, but I tried to upload this yesterday and wasn't working on my ipad, so I had to wait to find a computer, so I'm sticking with it still counting as yesterday) I leave it to you to figure out who Danny is talking about in the end. He claims to know what he feels for Sam is real love, and is sure that Sam loves him as well, so why does he only consider one of them 'truly in love'? Perhaps the real Danny is still in there somewhere, and knows how wrong this is... To bad we'll never find out. (insert evil laugh here)  
_

_Wow, that was a long one-shot, Please __**Review**__!_

_(And don't worry, the next chapter of 'Who I Really Am' is scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday depending on how decides to cooperate.) ;-)_


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